


Mother of Cats

by EBDaydreamer



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Infertility, Mother's Day, Non-Graphic Violence, Past Khal Drogo/Daenerys Targaryen - Freeform, Past Relationship(s), Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 20:26:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18301352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EBDaydreamer/pseuds/EBDaydreamer
Summary: Although Jon and Dany's histories with mothers are somewhat rocky, they've made their own Mother's Day tradition.





	Mother of Cats

**Author's Note:**

> It's Mother's Day in the UK so I thought I'd write a little something.  
> This is my first GoT fic and my first fic in a while so constructive criticism is more than welcome.

There was never any reason for either of them to celebrate Mother’s Day: both of their mother’s died in childbirth after all.

As per usual, Jon had been invited for dinner at his Uncle Ned’s but had made up some excuse as he had done every year since he moved out. Whilst the rest of the Stark’s had accepted him as their own, his Aunt Catelyn had always resented her husband treating Jon as an equal son. Jon never brought it up, but Dany could see how the lack of mother figure compared to his adoptive siblings had affected him.

Despite the lack of mothers in their lives, Dany had woken up to a joke card for the past six years from ‘her children’: Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion.

*

_6 years ago_

“Are you going to your Uncle’s this Sunday?” Dany inquired from her position on the couch, Viserion curled in her lap.

Jon returned from the kitchen with the Pringles. “No, why would I?”

“Well,” Dany began, stealing the crisps from him, “it _is_ Mother Day.”

Jon hesitated. “I haven’t really done that since Uni.”

“Why not?” Dany asked in between munches. “I thought you guys were close?”

“We are,” Jon sighed, glancing away. His face was becoming broody. After six months of dating, Dany had learnt the signs of a brood. “I mean, I am with my uncle- most of my cousins are like siblings to me-”

“Most?” Dany handed him the Pringles.

“Aye. Sansa and I were always distant.” He took three crisps into his mouth at once, chewing as he stalled. “She idolised her mother, you see. Aunt Catelyn… well, it was clear her priorities lay with her own children above her dead sister-in-law’s orphan.”

Dany’s heart stung. How could a woman - a mother, no less - make a child feel unimportant? How could she not see a child in need of love and then deny it them?

“It’s not a big deal, but I think she would rather spend Mother Day with her own children.”

She shuffled closer to him and lay her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “It’s alright. Saves me a trip to Winterfell.” He turned, a rare smile on his face. “And I can spend the weekend with you instead of those nutters.”

Dany giggled, “Smooth, but I have plans.”

Jon’s brow furrowed, “With who?”

“My children,” Dany replied, lifting Viserion out of her lap to show him.

“Of course,” Jon rolled his eyes playfully. “What is it Missandei calls you? The Mother of Cats.”

“Don’t mock,” Dany glared, pulling Viserion into her arms for a cuddle. “I found them. I raised them. They’re my children - possibly the only ones I’ll ever have.”

Jon's eyes snapped to hers, and Dany instantly realised her mistake. Shit: that morbid joke of hers was supposed to stay between herself and Missandei. She’d only had a few ‘boyfriends’ since Drogo, and they’d never gotten very serious so the issue had never come up before. She wasn’t even sure when a good time to mention something like that was. Yet, she’d never felt anyone the way she’d felt about Jon. She’d never felt this safe with someone before. She’d never felt desired for more than her pretty face. She’d never felt so open with anyone before.

“What do you mean?”

His voice forced her to focus and breathe. Tragic backstories were something she’d never really shared before Jon either - not with a romantic partner anyway. Jon wasn’t the first she’d told about her parents - with her father’s reputation before he died, she’d never really needed to - but he was the first she opened up to her life in foster care and her emotionally abusive older brother.

“Ok.” Miraculously, her voice didn't come out shaky, but it was still a whisper. She placed Viserion on the floor and stuffed a few Pringles in her mouth. “Ok.” She brushed the crumbs off her palms and turned to face him. She sighed heavily, unable to force the tale to her mouth, until she felt Jon’s hand reach for her’s.

“When I was fifteen, living in Essos, Viserys was trying to get in with this gang. Have you heard of the Dothraki?” Jon nodded, running his thumb across the back of her hand. “Well, he set me up with their leader-”

Jon’s eyes widened. “Set you up… romantically?”

Dany nodded, willing herself not to cry until the end of her story.

“Gods above, Dany. How old was he?”

“Thirty,” Dany managed to gasp. “He was thirty years old and he was my first boyfriend. Let me finish, please,” Dany begged when she saw he was about to express his outrage. “Vis was my legal guardian by then and… well… he threatened more than emotional abuse if I didn’t comply. I looked older than my age, so I flirted and batted my eyes when Vis introduced me to him and he… saw what he liked.” Dany shoved some more crisps in her mouth to give herself a break. “Surprisingly, he was actually quite kind to me - compared to Vis he was a saint. I promise, Jon, he never did anything I didn’t want to. Yes, I know I couldn’t legally give consent; yes, I now know it was statutory rape… but Jon, he was the first person to ever show me respect. He treated me like an actual human being capable of making her own decisions.” Dany inhaled deeply, closing her eyes, trying to ignore all the emotions she could see coming from Jon. “I fell in love with him, and it felt so real back then. Now I can see I did it more for survival than anything else.”

Drogon chose this moment to jump up on the couch between them, desperate for attention as always. With her free hand, she dragged him into her lap and began petting him, knowing she’d need his presence for the rest of the story.

“Then I skipped a period.”

Jon inhaled sharply. “Dany-”

“Please. Just let me…” she glanced down at Drogon, happily purring away before forcing her gaze back to Jon.

“I was fifteen, I was terrified. I barely spent any time in school because of Drogo, but I couldn’t go to the doctors without someone finding out, so I went to the school nurse.” Dany tightened her grip on Jon’s hand. “I was pregnant.”

The tears began to fall now, and Jon brought his free hand up to wipe them away with so much care Dany almost began to cry harder.

“Drogo was ecstatic and this… this was the only time I felt I didn’t have a choice with him.” Dany gave a shaky exhale. “I warmed to the idea, actually. I’d already accepted that I would have no education and my life would be with the Dothraki, so I might as well have something that was mine.” Her eyes darted to the floor where Rhaegal was now rubbing against her leg, sensing her distress. “Vis wasn’t quite as happy.”

She paused, unable to bring herself to finish. Missandei was the only person she’d had to repeat the tale to thus far, and she’d been much less sober then.

“Dany?” Jon’s voice was barely a whisper. “You can stop. You don’t have to carry on.”

“I do.” She redirected her gaze to his. “I want to.” She swallowed. “He threatened me. His standing within the Dothraki was not what he intended. He wanted to be Drogo’s right hand but felt I’d stolen his focus, especially now with the baby. He threatened to slice me open and rip the fetus out of me, so Drogo shot him dead. And I was relieved. My own brother, my only flesh and blood, had just been murdered in front of me and I felt relief.”

“Shh,” Jon soothed her as the tears came heavier and faster. “He’d just threatened your life, Dany. He made your life a living hell. You were free from your tormentor.”

“I know,” she continued, “but it appeared the Dothraki agreed with him about me. Less than a month later, a group of them attacked us with knives… they stabbed Drogo in the chest and left him to bleed out in an alleyway, they-” she choked down a sob, “they stabbed me in my stomach. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital a week later after what was apparently quite a few surgeries.” The hand stroking Drogon shifted towards her abdomen where her scars had mostly healed. When anyone asked, when Jon had asked, she said they were purely surgical scars and steeled herself to not get emotional at the sight of them. “I was told that Drogo was dead and I had lost my baby. I woke up alone.”

“Gods, Dany,” Jon muttered, his free hand now running gently up and down her arm.

“I was in the hospital for a few weeks regaining my strength before I was sent back into the foster system. I had about a month left before my sixteenth birthday and I’d be out on my own anyway.” Dany’s upper lip tugged upwards, “Lucky for me, I knew where Drogo kept his emergency stash and managed to get myself a little flat.” Her smile fell again when she remembered the point of her story. “But I had a checkup at the hospital and they said everything was fine…” Dany trailed off, her head shaking involuntarily, gaze dropping to her lap. “‘Everything is fine, Miss Targaryen, everything is fine _except_ ’... Except. Expect there was some damage - from the surgery or the stabbing they’re not sure - but there was some damage to my fallopian tubes and because of that it is likely that I may never be able to conceive a child again.”

She refused to look at him. She refused to move. She knew she’d ruined it. It was too much to admit she was this damaged after six months.

She almost jerked away when she felt his hand under her chin, lifting her head up to meet his eyes. Her blood tingled at the sight. He was staring at her with such awe and compassion and love that she wanted to cry all over again. In that moment, she knew there was no denying it: he loved her and she loved him.

She was speaking again, completely unaware of the words coming out of her mouth because they were so unbelievably honest it burned. “A lot for a sixteen-year-old, I know. It was an odd feeling, because I was unsure if I’d ever want kids after… everything. ...But I felt so alone, because I felt like I’d never have a family again. I knew I’d never have any blood relatives again. The once great Targaryen Family died in that alleyway. And I’m alone,” Dany finally sobbed.

Hastily, she was pulled onto Jon’s lap, his hands running soothingly up and down her back, as her’s found its way into his hair to steady herself, whilst another grasped his shoulder.

“You’re not alone,” he breathed into her ear. “You’ve got Missandei, you’ve got Jorah and Barristan. You’ve got hundreds that love you and care for because you set up your shelter and helped them, you showed them that they are loved, and so are you, Dany” He leant back, and she reluctantly followed, resting her forehead on his. “You are loved.” He cupped her face and wiped her tears. “I love you.”

A fresh wave of tears came crashing down at his words. She’d told him. She’d told him and he’d stayed. “I love you too.”

It wasn’t until later that night in bed that Jon asked, “So, why the Mother of Cats?”

Dany chuckled. “I actually found them when I was walking home from that checkup. Three tiny kittens in a box in an alleyway. After taking them to the vet I adopted them, and I supposed I imprinted my maternal instincts onto them.”

“Hm, so you get your nickname from the happy ending to a quite tragic story.”

“Mhmm.”

“And it has absolutely nothing to do with how you coddle them?”

“Absolutely nothing to do with it at all.”

She woke up that Sunday with a card written in his scrawling hand, signed from Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion.

The next year, after they moved in together, Ghost was added to the list.

*

“Good morning,” she greeted, lured into the kitchen by the smell of bacon.

Her husband glanced over his shoulder, mercifully shirtless as he cooked. “Morning, love.”

She pulled herself onto the stool by the island, enjoying the view of Jon in just his pyjama bottoms. Her card was sat waiting for her. “Thank you, love.”

“Don’t thank me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ah, of course.” She spun in the chair to see the cats lounged on the couch. “Thank you darlings.” She then turned to Ghost laying on his bed. When he met her gaze, the wolf came bounding over, stopping calmly by her side and nuzzling her leg. She smiled, “Thank you too, Ghost.”

She turned back at the sound of a plate being placed on the island and wasted no time in chomping down on her bacon sandwich.

Jon grinned. “Who knows, if all goes well, maybe we can add another child next year.”

Dany returned his grin. They had been trying for over a year now and were due to begin IVF treatment in a few weeks.

“I cancelled the appointment.”

Jon’s face dropped. “You did what? Why? Dany, if you were having doubts you-”

“No, love, come here.” He rounded the island and stood in front of her, shooing a reluctant Ghost away. She took his hands. “I cancelled the appointment because we don’t need it anymore.”

His eyes widened. “Are you… Dany are you saying…?”

Her face split into a smile so wide it was almost painful. “I’m pregnant.”

He lifted her out of her seat and she wrapped herself around him, burrowing her face into his neck. They held each other for a few moments before Jon began to shake, overcome by tears.

She lifted her head to look into his eyes. “We’re having a baby?”

Her face-splitting grin fell to a warm smile as she cupped his face, softly wiping away his tears. “We’re having a baby.”

Jon glanced to the wolf at their feet. “Now your behaviour makes sense,” he said accusingly. “I was beginning to think he started loving you more than me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s always loved me more than you.”

Jon laughed, setting her down on the floor as he did, clasping her hands instead.

He pressed his forehead against hers. “We’re getting the family we always wanted,” she whispered.

“Aye, love. I promised you that you’d never be alone again and I am a man of my word.”

She brought their hands to her abdomen, lightly pressing against her scars.

“Happy Mother’s Day, Daenerys.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I might turn this into a series if inspiration strikes.


End file.
